Contents

Stats

History

Born in Medellin, Spain in 1485, Hernán Cortés attended the University of Salamanca when he was 14, but left after two years after hearing stories of the New World. He reached the New World﻿ in 1504, and several years later, participated in the conquest of Hispaniola and Cuba, receiving a large estate of land and Indian slaves from the leader of the expedition.

In 1518, the Governor of Cuba, Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, put Cortés in command of an expedition to explore and secure the interior of Mexico for colonization. At the last minute, Velézquez revoked his charter, but Cortés, in direct mutiny, ignored the orders and went ahead with the original plan. Cortés defeated the local natives at Tabasco, Mexico in 1519 and in just two years, he had brought upon the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Despite his small army and the fact that Cortes directly ignored the Spanish Kingdom (even almost being executed for such treason) he managed to win the favor of Spain by conquering modern day Mexico (including the Aztecs). He did this by using superior Renaissance technology, allying himself with American tribes who opposed the Aztecs and using disease as a biological weapon of mass destruction.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was declared in 1519. The colony fell on September 27, 1821 when the Spainish Empire was weakened during Napoleon's decolonization of the Americas and the Napoleonic Wars.

Cortés gained much gold (though became bankrupt multiple times) and died at 62 in Spain. His body was moved to Mexico but due to fears of being desecrated his body was constantly moved. Today it is protected by the Mexican state.

Final Strike: After knocking his opponent on the ground, Cortés will offer his hand in friendship. His victim takes his hand, and Cortés pulls him to his feet, stabbing them in the back with his dagger.

Simulated Battle

Ivan The Terrible

Hernán Cortés

The battle begins in a field with Ivan the Terrible knelt in a silent prayer, surrounded by 2 Russian Streltsy soldiers and 2 Oprichniki horsemen. He looks toward the sky, and then looks down to a bloodied prisoner tied to two horses, who is about to be quartered. Ivan smirks at the condemned as he rises from his kneeling position. Elsewhere, Hernán Cortés and 4 of his conquistadors are out for a ride when Cortés suddenly spots the group of men. The First Tsar of Russia nods to one of the hooded Oprichniki and the horsemen begin to pull. Ivan laughs at the prisoner's pain as Cortés, who has dismounted from horseback, shows concern and signals for his men to take position with their Arquebus rifle. Ivan immediately stops laughing when he notices the group of men aiming their firearms at his death squad. Cortés gives the signal with his sword and the conquistadors open fire. Before the gunmen fire, Ivan quickly grabs one of his Streltsy soldiers and pulls him in front of him. The Russian is killed by the assault of bullets but the Terrible Tsar is knocked down to the ground by the force of the bullets. As the Spanish riflemen hurry to reload their rifles, Ivan gets back to his feet and runs over to one of the horses, pulling the Oprichnik down.

Meanwhile, the last Streltsy sets up his Bardiche axe as a mount for his Pischal rifle, shooting and killing one of the Spaniards who shot the other soldier. Ivan draws his Sablia and rides on, pulling the prisoner in half and dragging the torso behind him. The remaining soldier and the dismounted Oprichnik charge the Spaniards. The conquistadors calmly hold their ground as one of the Spaniards takes an Alabarda from his horse and hands it to Cortés. As the conquistadors continue to reload, Ivan rides up and slashes one of them in the face, killing him instantly. He then changes course and rides to a retreating conquistador who has his Espada Ropera drawn and slashes him in the back of the neck, also killing him.

Elsewhere, the mounted Oprichnik draws his Sablia and rides towards Cortés, who is still armed with his Alabarda. Cortés holds his ground and reaches with the poleaxe, pulling the hooded man down from horseback. Cortés then raises the poleaxe and brings it down into the Oprichnik's face. The last Oprichnik charges at the head conquistador with his saber drawn. Cortés lifts the axe from the dead man's hood, parrying the sword and countering with a thrust attack, which impales the Oprichnik through the chest. Cortés then calls for his horse, which the last mounted conquistador brings to him. The conquistador then rides on with his sword drawn. However, he is shot off his horse by the last Streltsy, who then finishes him off with a strike to the mid-section with his Bardiche while he is still down.

Cortés then charges forth on his horse, slashing the Russian in the face with his Espada Ropera as he lifts the heavy Bardiche for a strike. Ivan then spots Cortés and charges at him, sword raised. Ivan slashes Cortés as he rides by, but Cortés is unfazed as the saber bounces off his steel breastplate. After the charge is finished, Ivan notices that Cortés managed to cut him on his right cheek. Ivan gleefully licks the blood from his finger, then gives a shout as he and Cortés charge at each other, both men shouting. As the warriors ride past each other, Cortés ducks under Ivan's wild swing and thrusts his sword forward, puncturing Ivan's neck. Ivan slumps down in his saddle as he quickly bleeds out, then falls face down from his horse to the ground. Hernán Cortés then walks up to the fallen Tsar, holding his right breast where the sword struck him and kicks Ivan to make sure that he's dead. Seeing no movement, Cortés holds his sword up and kneels down, taking the dead Tsar's money pouch and finding gold coins. Smiling at his spoils, Cortés stands up and raises his sword, shouting "¡Gloria!" (Glory) triumphantly.

Expert's Opinion

The reason why Cortés won was because of his superior armor as well that his alabarda was able to dismount Ivan's men off their horses. Not only that, Cortés also won the majority of X-Factors particularly for Psychological Health, whereas Ivan's unstable mentality meant he wasn't able to lead his troops as effectively in battle, especially if they were fighting a close fight.

Trivia

Hernán Cortés was portrayed by equestrian and mounted weapons expert Ardeshir Radpour, one of the experts on the Persian Immortal in the Persian Immortal vs Celt episode of Season 2.

Some of the scenes from the episode was stock footage taken from BBC's Heroes and Villains - Hernán Cortés.

Cortés himself killed 4 out of the 5 warriors he fought, tied for the highest number of kills for one warrior in a squad on squad fight (not counting Vampires vs. Zombies) with the Spetsnaz leader, Crazy Horse, and arguably Saddam Hussein.

This fight was the first to involve matchlock firearms and was the earliest warriors of the 'modern fighters', the guns so primitive that only one type of gun was used per warrior.

At 5' 4", Cortés is tied with Joan of Arc for the shortest European warrior, shorter even than Napoleon (famous for the myth of him being short).

Cortés has 3 different armors shown in the Deadliest Warrior episode- no armor, cuirass and helmet only, and full knight armor. In real life, Cortés started his expeditions with little or no armor and progressively gained more armor to show his increasing wealth during his conquests. The armor shown on the TV show is during the conquest of the Aztecs, which was the middle of his campaigns.

There is a common misconception that Hernan Cortes defeated the Aztecs with an army of at most a few thousands soldiers. However that was only the case regarding the European Conquistadors specifically; Cortes' forces were mostly other Native-American tribes, the Siege of Tenochtitlan was measured at 80,000-200,000 for the Spanish made alliance against the Aztecs.

There is historical evidence to suggest that Francisco Pizarro, the tyrant conquistador of Peru, was a distant cousin of Cortes.

Cortes' use of halberd and muskets is an infantry combat combination known as 'Pike and Shot'.

When initially arriving in the Aztec Empire, the Aztecs worshiped Hernan as a god due to his white skin; as Aztecs thought that their gods normally had lighter skin than that of an Aztec.

Before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no potatoes in Ireland, no coffee in Colombia, no pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no tomatoes in Italy, and no chocolate in Switzerland.